F 74 
.D5 D4 
Copy 1 



DEDICATION 



SOLDIERS' MONUMENT 



DORCHESTER, 



F 






SKFaTEMlBER 17, 18Q7. 



BOSTON: 

THOMAS GROOM & CO. 
1868. 



DEDICATION 



SOLDIERS' MONUMENT 



DORCHESTER, 



S-KPTEiyEHEii ir, 186 7. 



BOSTON: 

THOMAS GROOM & CO, 
1868. 









COMMITTEE OF THE PICKWICK CLUB 



AFPOINTED TO SOIJCIT SUBSCRIPTIONS. TO SELECT A DESIGN FOR 
A SOEDIERS' MONUMENT ON MEETING-HOUSE HILL, AND TO 
TAKE THE GENERAL CHARGE OF ITS ERECTION. 

FKANCIS P. DENNY, 
J. 11. PIERCE, E. C. HUMPHREYS, 

CHAS. B. FOX, JAS. E. SWAN, 

WM. F. JONES, T. M. JOHNSTON. 




o- 



In Honor of the Citizen Soldiers of Dorchester, who fell in the War 
of the Rebellion, 1861-1865. 



■O 



DESCRIPTION OE THE MONUMENT. 



The monument stands amidst a cluster of elms, directly in front 
of the church on Meeting-House Hill, and rests upon a substantial 
foundation about five feet in depth, laid upon a solid ledge. The 
material is the newly-discovered red or rose-colored Gloucester 
granite, which combines the mellow hue of light freestone with the 
hardness and durability of the best qualit}' of the kind of rock to 
which it belongs. The structure measures about eight feet at the 
base, and is thirty-one feet in height. Upon a square moulded 
base, with square projections at the angles, is a die, having on each 
of the four sides raised, polished tablets which contain about 
ninetj' names sunk deep into the surface. The tablets are moulded 
at the edges with semi-circular tops, over which are wreaths of 
laurel carved in relief and hanging from ornamented centres con- 
necting with the keys of the main cornice above them. The cor- 
ners of the die are supported by four buttresses, on each of which 
is an upright cannon in half-relief. 

Above a heavy cornice is a second die supported at the corners 
by ornamental scrolls. On the faces of this are circular panels, 
sunk into the granite, in which are inserted four white marble tab- 
lets. That on the east side has in square sunk letters the inscrip- 
tion : " In Honor of the Citizen Soldiers of Dorchester who Fell 
in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865" ; that on the west side 
bears the motto : " They Died that the Nation Might Live " ; that 
on the north side represents, in finely cut relief, the seal of the 
town ; and that on the south side contains a group of military 



symbols, — a tent and the American flag in the background, a field- 
piece in position in the centre ; in the foreground a stack of 
muskets and a pile of balls ; at the bottom, in a medallion, is a 
" foul anchor," the emblem of the Nav3^ These tablets were cut 
by a young artist, Mr. Garrette Barry, and are admirably executed. 
Above the second die is a moulded cap, surmounted by a channelled 
or fluted base, from which springs the shaft or obelisk, four feet 
square at the bottom, with chamfered corners. This shaft is 
broken at about equal intervals by two projecting belts or blocks. 
The first has a large star in bold relief on each face ; the other has 
a like repetition of the shield of the Union, with the stars and 
stripes, supported by sprigs of oak and laurel. 

The whole structure is built in thp most substantial manner, 
the different courses being clamped together with composition 
bars. The ground at the base of the monument is graded thirt}' 
feet square, about a foot above the natural level, and inclosed by a 
heavy border of hammered Quincy granite. Gravel walks lead to 
the tablets, terminating in a circular gravelled sj^ace ; the rest of 
the inclosure is turfed. The architect of the monument was Mr. 
B. F. Dwight, of Boston ; and the contractors were the Gloucester 
Red Granite Company. 



ORDER OF EXERCISES. 



MUSIC. 



READING FROM THE SCRIPTURES, 

BY KEV. T. J. MUMFORD. 



MUSIC. 



DEDICATORY PRAYER, 

BY REV. J. H. MEANS. 



DIRGE. 

SUNG BY THE CHILDREN OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

Peace to the brave who nobly fell 

'Neath our flag, their hope and pride ! 

They fought like heroes long and well, 
Then like heroes died. 

Hallowed forever be the graves 

Where our martyrs dreamless sleep ! 

Columbia, weep thy fallen braves, 
But triumphant weep ! 

Nobly they died in Freedom's name — 
Died our country's flag to save ; 

Forever sacred be their fame, 
Green their honored grave ! 



ORATION, 

BY EEV. C. A. HUMPHREYS. 



ODE, 

BY W. T. ADAMS, ESQ. 

Sung by the Children of the Public Schools. 

No more the cannon peal 
And clash of ringing steel 

Our land o'ersweep ; 
But, in the soldier's grave, 
The bravest of the brave. 
Who died our cause to save, 

In glory sleep ! 

On many a battle plain, 

Green with their life-blood stain, 

Our heroes rest. 
In holy calm they sleep. 
While mourning thousands weep. 
And in their hearts still keep 

Their memory blest. 

Immortal bays we bring 
Upon their graves to fling, 

Heroic dead ! 
They fought in freedom's fight, 
Dispelling treason's night, 
And in their manhood's might 

Their life-blood shed. 

All honor to our braves, 
Who sleep in hallowed graves 

In southern clime, 
Or at their kindred's side ; 
Alike they bled and died 
To stay oppression's tide — 

A death sublime. 



9 



Lord God of nations, here 
This monument we rear, 

In thy great name. 
As Thou hast blessed our land, 
To Thee we give the band 
Who fell by treason's hand — 

And deathless fame. 



TREASURER'S REPORT. 



MUSIC. 



TRANSFER OF THE MONUMENT 

TO THE TOAVN AUTHOPaTIES. 



DOXOLOGY. 

From all who dwell below the skies. 
Let the Creator's praise arise ; 
Let the Redeemer's name be sung, 
In every land, by every tongue. 

Eternal are thy mercies, Lord, 

Eternal truth attends thy woi'd ; 

I'hy praise shall sound from shore to shore, 

Till suns shall rise and set no more. 



ORATION 

BY EEV. CHAKLES A. HUMPHEEYS, 

OF SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 



Friends and Fellow Citizens : 

As we stand under the shadow of this monument 
which we dedicate to-day, its silent pointing to the 
heavens, its voiceless record of noble names, remind 
us that our theme is beyond the power of words to 
portray, and that silence is here the most fitting- 
eloquence. All great things are silent, — tjtie eternal 
hills, the ocean in its depths. They have no speech 
nor language ; yet their peaceful stillness is more 
eloquent than the roar of tempests at the surface, or 
the blast of winds at their summit. So this silent 
orator tells more eloquently of the grand achieve- 
ments and the glorious deeds of our heroes than any 
spoken eulogy that mortal lips can frame. How impres- 
sive is its simple silence ! It bears no record of the 
valor of our soldiers ; it lavishes no praise on their 
patriotic devotion ; it does not even name the bloody 
fields where one and another laid down their precious 
lives ; but so long as this shaft shall stand, so long as its 



12 

stony finger sliall point to the open heavens, — so long 
shall it tell the story of their sacrifice, and point the 
passers-by to those lofty and divine principles of liberty 
from which they drew their courage and their strength. 
It is a high and sacred duty that we this day fulfil. 
It is not only our martyr brothers that we honor by this 
memorial, but also ourselves. By it, we pledge ourselves 
to a like devotion. If we honor them because they 
died that the nation might live, let us show our sincerity 
by so living that the nation may have more abundant 
life. Let us not excuse ourselves by saying that we 
cannot of ourselves do much. It was not with such 
faint-heartedness tliat they girt on their armor. Our 
little band of martyrs could not save the nation ; yet 
they gave what they could,- and all they could, to the 
common cause, and so are equal sharers of the common 
triumph. It is the noble distinction of our country not 
only that the people can rule it, but that they alone can 
save it. Imperial Rome could not live Avithout her 
Coesar. Alexander yielded to his successors the empire 
of half the world ; but without him, it could not keep 
its integrity. All the ancient dynasties crumbled with 
the ashes of their leaders. The supremacy of modern 
European nations depends chiefly on the diplomacy of 
a few. Bismarck builds a mighty kingdom on the ruins 
of the German Confederation, while France loses caste 
with the duplicity of Napoleon, and England comes to 
a stand-still with the obstinate selfishness of her minis- 
try : but our nation can decline only with the decline 



13 

of public virtue, and can live only in the life of the 
people. Our liundred martyrs are only a handful com- 
pared with the hundreds of thousands of victims offered 
on the altar of the country ; yet each of them fought 
for the nation and not for any leader, and in each one's 
sacrifice the nation found salvation. It is not presump- 
tion then, but the very spirit of our institutions to raise 
an enduring- memorial of each and every martyr of 
liberty, and to give a national significance to each hero's 
devotion. 

Will any one say that, because ours was a civil war, 
memorials of its victims must of necessity perpetuate 
sectional bitterness ? I repel the insinuation. Not one 
of those whose devotion we celebrate to-day fought for 
a section or a party, but for the whole country. Not 
one of them lifted his arm against the South, but against 
treason wherever it might rear its horrid front. They 
were not the victims of passion, but the martyrs of 
principle. We celebrate not the triumph of a section, 
but the saving of a nation. The names which we with 
pious care have cut in the enduring stone were long 
before claimed by the Genius of Liberty, and set with 
more enduring lustre among the brightest pearls in her 
diadem. Need we then hesitate to reveal our memorial 
to the world 'I Will any true son of liberty ever turn 
with averted face from its brilliant record ? When our 
nation is ao-ain united in a common devotion to the 
principles of freedom, which are the very life of the 



14 

republic, shall we then be ashamed to recall the names 
of those who died in her defence ? 

But even if our monument, besides celebrating the 
virtues of our heroes, should also recall the crimes of 
the rebels, and revive the long smothered indignation 
against the plotters of treason in the South, still let it 
stand. We may forgive, but we cannot forget, — we 
must not forget. We owe it to our brothers not to for- 
get their sacrifices. Upon their wasted lives we are 
rearing the structure of a nobler civilization. Their 
blood has nourished the seeds of liberty, their names 
will ever be its truest inspiration. Shall we reap the 
fruits of their devotion, and refuse to honor their memo- 
ries ? It was the painful necessity of their position to 
fight against their own flesh and blood. Shall we 
therefore conceal the record of their fidelity ? Shall we 
not rather hold in more abundant honor those who left 
houses and lands and kindred for the sake of a noble 
principle ? How often friend met friend in bloody fray, 
brother lifting the sword against brother ! They felt 
that love of country was a holier tie than love of 
kindred ; for the happiness of millions was involved in 
the nation's salvation. Let us not forget, then, their 
self-denying devotion. We owe it to our country not to 
forget her defenders. The nation lives only in the 
devotion of the people ; and we must, by every apprecia- 
tive celebration and every enduring memorial, perpetu- 
ate the remembrance of those who gave everything for 



15 

her salvation. The national character is moulded by 
the traditions of its own experience. The masses of 
men do not look abroad for their teachings of wisdom 
and their illustrations of heroism, but to their own 
ancestry and their own community. The strongest com- 
munities or peoples are those that are richest in these 
traditions of heroism and devotion. 

It is not in the decline of national power, but at its 
height, that the memorials of greatness are reared. The 
neglect of them is the sure sign of national weakness 
and decay. When Greece forgot the heroes of Mara- 
thon, she forgot also her own glory. When Rome forgot 
Brutus and his compatriots at Philippi, she forgot also 
her own liberties. W^hen England forgot Cromwell, or 
remembered him only to disgrace his ashes, she dis- 
graced herself, and forgot her supremacy in the glitter- 
ing attractions of a luxurious court. When our country 
shall forget to honor her defenders, shall neglect the 
memorials of their heroism, she will have forgotten also 
her own true dignity, and have neglected the fountains 
of her truest life. No, we will not forget our fallen 
heroes. As long as freedom has a name to be honored 
and loved, her martyrs shall be remembered ; and if ever 
we are tempted to be false to liberty, their blood will 
cry to us from the ground, and their spirits will still rule 
us from their urns. To the people of France, for long 
years after his death, the ashes of Xapoleon were a more 
potent spell than the flash of a hundred thousand bayo- 
nets. They cringed before the ghost of the tyrant 



16 

quicker tliiin to the sword of his tools. No such horrid 
nightmare haunts the graves of our heroes ; yet the 
spell of their names shall be as powerful. For long 
years to come, yes, forever in the history of our land, 
the grave of a martyr of liberty shall be stronger than 
the throne of a tyrant, and the ashes of her patriot 
defenders shall overcome the legions of treason though 
they advance terrible as an army wdth banners. 

In the war through which we have just passed, the 
traditions of the Revolution were as inspiring as the 
immediate demands of the crisis. We believed that as 
God had been with our fathers He would also be with 
us. We trusted that a like devotion to liberty would 
meet a like reward. We read and we repeated to 
others the story of their sacrifices. Lexington and 
Bunker Hill were our rallying cries. The blood-stained 
snows of Valley Forge nerved our endurance. The 
triumph of Yorktown inspired our faith. The Charter 
of Independence became the certificate of the national 
life. The South threatened to violate the sacred memo- 
ries of the Eevolution by calling the roll of her slaves 
under the shadow of Bunker Hill. But from beneath 
her hallowed sod there came such inspiration that a 
million freemen sprang to arms and defied the impious 
threat. The rebels fought not alone against Northern 
steel, but against their own and the country's history, 
against their own and the country's life. God and 
nature were against them. The stars in their courses 
fought against rebellion. The result was not doubtful. 



17 

In decisive battles, truth always musters the heaviest bat- 
talions. So to-day those who under the specious pretext 
of a restored Union are plotting for a re-established sys- 
tem of oppression, are plotting against the national life, 
and will surely fail. Our country has not vanquished 
her open enemies only to fall by the thrusts of her pre- 
tended friends. She is stronger than ever before in the 
faith of the people. She stands not now as in the Hevo- 
lution, the hopeful field whereon freedom and high 
civilization might achieve new triumphs for man. Our 
country holds to-day a grander position and a nobler 
fame. She stands before the world as the arena where- 
on Freedom and Slavery have closed in fierce death- 
grapple, and Freedom stands triumphant. If our 
fathers and brothers died for a glorious hope, shall w^e 
not live for a grand fruition 1 Our fathers feared that 
the stripes of their dear-loved banner might come to 
symbolize the exactions of a foreign tyranny, and our 
brothers died with only the hope that its stars might 
not go out in disastrous night. But to us the stripes 
are crimson wdth the blood of a hundred thousand 
heroes whose ebbing life was the flood tide on whjch 
our liberties rose for a vantage-ground of eternal securi- 
ty, and its stars stand firm as the stars in heaven, not 
only undiminished, but ever increasing in number and 
in lustre. 

What an inheritance has thus been transmitted to 
us as the inspiration and the pledge of our fidelity ! 

3 



18 

We need not now search the annals of ancient history 
for illustrations of heroism and patriotic devotion. We 
need go no more to Marathon and Thermopylae. We 
need not appeal to Leonidas to inspire our courage, nor 
suffer the trophies of Miltiades to break our sleep. 
We need not even go back to Lexington and Bunker 
Hill, to Prescott and Warren. We have in our own 
times as bright a galaxy of noble names, as grand a 
pile of trophies. Where are the fields that shall dim 
the lustre of Antietam and Gettysburg, of Winchester 
and Cedar Creek, of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, of 
Murfreesborough and Lookout Mountain ^ Where in 
military annals are the movements that compare in 
rapidity with the raids of Sheridan, in grandeur with 
the march of Sherman, in persistency with the advance 
of Grant? Where in history are the generals who can 
cast a shade upon the names of Lyon and Sedgwick 
and Kearney and Macpherson ? Where are the com- 
manders braver than Kogers and Winslow and Farragut 
and Foote ? What nation or people has such an illus- 
trious roll of young heroes — Ellsworth, Winthrop, 
B^er, Shaw, Putnam, Lowell? And if we come 
nearer home, what private memorial ever bore nobler 
names than ours ? Do you speak of courage ? At 
Gettysburg, they moved not one step backward before 
the fiercest onset of the desperate foe.* Do you speak 



*Thos. B.Fox, Jr., Capt., Second Regiment Mass. Infantry Volunteers, 
died July 25th, 18G3, of wounds received at Gettysburg, Pa. 



19 

of gallant daring 1 Their advance at Kenesaw Moun- 
tain was not checked till their poor bodies were riddled 
with bullets.* Do you speak of endurance? In the 
Wilderness for thirty days they marched and fought 
and intrenched, and marched and fought and intrenched, 
every day nearer the rebel capitol, and in the last grand 
effort at Cold Harbor met defeat only with death. f Do 
you speak of fortitude and patience ? Do you not know 
that eleven of those whose names are here surrounded 
with an enduring wreath of glory met without a mur- 
mur a most inglorious death, away from friends, without 
one tear of sympathy, wasting away inch by inch in the 
loathsome confinement of the rebel prisons ? I will 
not multiply horrors in order to magnify their virtues. 
But, tell me, is there a brighter page in history than 
that which we have stereotyped to-day with these famil- 
iar names ? To-day we give them to history ; but not 
alone to her cold and voiceless record. We have also 
inscribed their names upon the tablets of our hearts, 
and there they shall live in a bright immortality of 
grateful remembrance. 

I have spoken of the value of our traditions to patri- 
otic devotion, noAv so multiplied that almost every fire- 
side has its own heroic tale. 



* Henry W. Hall, Adjutant, Fifty-first Regiment Illinois Infantry Volun- 
teers, fell June 27th, 18G4, pierced with eleven bullets, in the charge upon 
the rebel intrencliments at Kenesaw Mountain. 

t Walter Humphreys, Co. A, Thirteenth Regiment Mass. Infantry Volun- 
teers, fell at Cold Harbor, June 2d, 18G4. 



20 

But their value depends chiefly on connecting them 
with the traditions of the national life. We must not 
repeat the story of the glorious deeds of our heroes 
without recalling also the sacred principles for which 
they risked their precious lives. They fought first and 
foremost for the national integrity ; but for the national 
integrity chiefly because it was the synonyme of univer- 
sal liberty. God in his all-wise providence had planted 
the vine of liberty in this western world at the foot of 
the tree of our national life, and had so entwined their 
rapid growths that the axe could not cleave them apart 
without destroying both, nor could the propitious rains 
water the roots of liberty without nourishing also the 
national life. iVs in the Revolution, the colonists did 
not in the beginning fight for independence but for 
justice, yet were soon taught by providential experience 
that justice could not be reached except through inde- 
pendence, so, in the late war, our people did not in 
the beginning fight for freedom, but for the national life ; 
yet were soon taught by providential events that the 
nation could not be saved except through liberty. And 
as at the birth of religious liberty in Judea, God had 
prepared a grand empire under one head, its subjects 
obeying the same laws, familiar with the same language, 
sharers of a common civilization, and all from the gates 
of Hercules to the farthest Ind bearing the common 
dignity of a Roman citizen, and this unity of laws and 
language invited Christianity to the easier conquest of 
the world, so at the birth of ci\il liberty in the Mav- 



21 

flower, God opened a wide continent, and raised up a 
great people, and gave them liberty for their inheritance, 
and freedom for their possession, and bade them scatter 
these blessings throughout the world. For the security 
of these priceless treasures, we first won our indepen- 
dence through the devotion of our fathers, and now by 
the fidelity of our brothers have estabhshed our nation- 
ality on the basis of universal liberty. It only remains 
that we still be faithful ; that we now and forever link 
our traditions of patriotic devotion, so full and fresh 
to-day, with the traditions of liberty which God has en- 
twined so closely about our national life ; then we shall 
enter upon such a career of glory as we can scarcely 
now foresee. 

Our most immediate duty is to secure the fruits of 
our triumph, and lay the foundation of a lasting peace. 
Oh, for a Hampden or a Washington, who, having 
caught the spirit of a great struggle and brought it to a 
successful close, can also, by wisdom and moderation, 
restrain the excesses of victory and soothe the anger of 
defeat ! Alas ! our village Hampden, our second Wash- 
ington is gone I gone with those who in camp and field 
and hospital laid their rich gifts of life upon the altar 
of the country ! gone to his boys whose bright and 
gleaming ranks beyond the river of death opened to 
welcome what we could so hardly lose ! Still we will 
not repine. Our salvation does not de^Dcnd upon one 
man or set of men, but upon the people, and the lessons 
of this war have been too deeply burned into their 



22 



hearts for them noAv to prove untrue. Let the people 
sec to it that treason is made odious and rebellion fully 
crushed ; that loyalty is encouraged and disloyalty re- 
buked ; that liberty is made the inalienable possession 
of every inhabitant of our land, and that all within our 
borders, of whatever race, sex or condition, are allowed 
free scope for the development of all their powers, and 
are intrusted with all the duties of citizenship for which 
they may be fitted by their intelligence, their capacities, 
or theii natural position. What a glorious career will 
then open to our nation ! Fearing no enemies within 
or without, she will attain a dignity she has not yet 
assumed ; she will be a leader among the nations, too 
great to excite their envy, too magnanimous to stir their 
hate. Her freedom will be the inspiration of every 
struggling people, and her tranquillity the rebuke of 
every trembling tyranny. 

Yet not in laws alone shall she lead the nations, but 
in literatures and every field of knowledge. We have 
not only broken the fetters of the slave, but we have 
begun to break the fetters of the mind. As the com- 
mon mind goes forth to mingle in strife or sympathy 
with the minds of millions, and sees open before it all 
the opportunities and privileges that the greatest can 
possess, and feels that it participates in the dignity and 
glory of the mighty mass, and sustains an equal share 
in Its protection and support, it cannot but expand with 
the expanding thought, and must rise above all mean 
conceptions and narrow views, and image forth in its 



•23 

own development the grand nnfolding of the national 
life. Great nations beget great thoughts ; and it is only 
with great struggles that great literatures are born. 
The relentless plough of war has broken the surface of 
the popular mind, and brought up the rich sub-soil of 
deep convictions and broader aims, and it now lies fur- 
rowed and fallow for the sowing of whatever thoughts 
befit a great nation and a free people. 

Would that some Homer or Virgil or Dante might 
arise to catch the spirit of the age and mould the aspira- 
tions of the people into a worthy epic that would be a 
priceless legacy to h\\ coming time ! Or rather, would 
that there might arise one greater than they all ! For 
the struggle through which we have passed developed 
more of daring adventure and thrilling romance, more 
of calm endurance and heroic devotion than Virgil ever 
saw, or Homer ever sung ; and its terrible earnestness 
and fearful sacrifices would furnish the theme of a 
" divine tragedy " that would need a greater than Dante 
to portray. The age must make its own interpreter. 
Meanwhile we can all do something to establish and 
perpetuate the principles for which our brothers died. 
Let us see to it that the rich seeds of precious lives that 
have been sown broadcast over the laud bear living- 
fruit in a purified government and a regenerated people. 
Let us catch the spirit of the age, and press on in the 
path of the nation s destiny. The time is ripe for grand 
attempts and grander results. Freedom is daily achiev- 
ing victories for which but lately we scarce dared to 



24 

liopc ; tiiid the spirit of Republicanism is rising- in such 
a flood that its refluent waves are engidfing the thrones 
and tyrannies of the old world, and lifting the oppressed 
people into liberty and manhood. 

Is not this place also inspiring'? Old Dorchester 
bears a noble record of public virtue and devoted 
patriotism. In 1630, her founders, led hither by 
their love of Christian liberty, having first by a fair 
equivalent obtained a release of the land from the 
Indian chief, used great efforts to civilize the neigh- 
boring tribes and convert them to Christianity, thus 
laying the foundations of her civil, polity in enlightened 
justice and earnest religious faith. In 165*2, by public 
vote, a general collection was taken up in the town for 
the maintenance of Harvard College. In 1664, the 
town drew up a petition for civil and religious liberty ; 
and in general took such a stand in those early colonial 
days that, in all civil assemblies and military musters she 
was allowed the precedence in honorable position. Nor 
did she discredit her reputation in after time. Years 
before the Revolution, the town voted to encourage 
domestic manufactures, and lessen the use of foreign 
luxuries. She especially prohibited the use of tea 
except in cases of sickness; and in 1774 voted to pay 
her province tax into the treasury of the " Sons of 
Liberty," instead of to the treasurer of the Crown, 
declaring that the attempt of Parliament to impose upon 
the colonies laws without their consent was a tyrannical 
usurpation. In the Revolution, having early voted to 



sustain the Continental Congress if they should see fit 
to declare an independency with Great Britain, Dor- 
chester gave to the army one-third of her men over 
sixteen years of age, and in the late war for our national 
existence, with a population of only ten thousand, she 
furnished one thousand two hundred and seventy-seven 
men, which was one hundred and twenty-three in excess 
of all calls ; and of these, one hundred and twenty-seven 
became martyrs of liberty, ninety-seven of them our own 
townsmen. 

Theirs are the holy rites of commemoration that we 
celebrate to-day. About their names we here intwine 
an imperishable wreath of glory. To their memories 
we consecrate this monumental shaft. We have placed 
it under the shadow of the church, for theirs was a 
sacred cause. It stands in view of the sounding ocean 
whose ceaseless beat and roar shall not outlast their 
fame. We will also enshrine them in our heart of 
hearts ; and, inspired by their devotion to the country, we 
will here consecrate ourselves anew to her service. 

" The patriot spirit lias not fled ; 
It walks in noon's broad light, 
And it watches the bed of the glorious dead 

With the holy stars by night. 
It watches the bed of the brave who have bled, 

And shall guard this rock-bound shore, 
Till the waves of the bay, in their mystic play, 
Shall break and foam no more." 
4 



ADDRESS BY FRANCIS P. DENNY, ESQ. 



Chairman of the Committee, in Transferring the Monument to the Town 

Authorities. 



Ladies and Fellow-Citizens : 

We have assembled on Meeting-house Hill, at another 
meeting for the soldiers. What memories are awakened 
as we gather here to-day ! It was here you came to 
urge your young men to enlist in the army of the Union, 
at those earnest meetings where the word of patriotism 
was answered by the pledge of life for country, and 
whose enlistment paper contained many a name in- 
scribed upon the roll of honor here. At the time of 
defeat, in the hour of darkness, you stood here close 
together to strengthen your own faith and to send the 
word of encouragement to your soldiers in the field. In 
the hour of dread suspense, on that never to be forgot- 
ten Sunday, in yonder church, there was a meeting for 
the wounded and the dying soldiers, where not a word 
was spoken, but the tender love of woman taught the 
lesson of the day. Here, week after week, year in and 
year out, in sunshine and in storm, have the mothers 
and sisters, the wives and daughters of our soldiers, 
brought their offerings and prepared those comforts 



28 

that can only come from home. How often have these 
rocks resounded with the measured tread of the proces- 
sion bearing the precious dust of the hero from receiv- 
ing its last sad honors to its final resting-place ! And 
when victory came, as come it must, it was here you 
welcomed home your war-worn veterans. 

With such associations, it is well, it is fitting, that 
we should be here to-day ; that here we should erect 
our memorial tablet for those who went out from our 
homes and never returned, or came back but to die. 

There are other associations about this spot that are 
pleasant to reflect upon. The monument stands on the 
ground covered from 174:3 to 1817, a period of seventy- 
four years, by the third meeting-house erected in the 
town, and the only one of its day and generation, — this 
tree marks the spot where the pulpit stood. So that 
this is already consecrated ground, sacred as the place 
where our fathers assembled for the w^orship of God. 

It is but justice to the committee to state briefly the 
simple story of the origin of their authority, and what 
they have attempted to express in the structure before 
us. 

The Pickwick Club, a literary society of the town, at 
the beginning of the war had upon its records the names 
of forty-nine young men ; at its close, twenty-two had 
been in the service of their country, and seven had 
yielded up their lives in its sacred cause. It was found 
impossible to reorganize it; 4ts life-blood was gone. 
But its war record was too brilliant to be lost ; the mem- 



29 

ories of its heroes too precious to be forgotten ; the 
lesson of their lives too rich a legacy not to be handed 
down to another generation. After an existence of ten 
years, its last act was the appointment of the present 
soldiers' monument committee, with instructions to 
enbrace in its design a memorial of all who fell in the 
war of the rebellion belonging to the town of Dorchester. 

On the eastern tablet are seven names, no better than 
the other ninety, but I feel I do no injustice if I point 
to them with a fraternal affection, and remind you of 
him who fell at Antietam, in the heat of the battle ; of 
him who sickened and died at Newbern ; of him who 
received his fatal wound at the battle of the Wilderness ; 
of the martyr of Port Royal, stricken by malaria in the 
midst of his labors for the down-trodden and oppressed ; 
of the gallant officer at Groveton, mortally wounded 
while leading his men to the charge ; of him who was 
wounded at Gettysburg in the hour of victory, the pride 
of his home-mates, the beloved of his associates every- 
where, who was permitted to die in the home of his 
youth ; of the heroic Adjutant at Kenesaw Mountain 
who fell, exciting the admiration even of his foe, with 
drawn sword in advance of his men. And of each one 
whose name is here it may be said, as honor enough, 
he died that the nation might live. 

In the selection of a monumental design, limited by 
the funds of a subscription to which it was wished all 
should contribute rather than to have it large and 
exclusive, the committee sought for no elaborate 



30 

column, no pretentious architectural display. Tne 
structure that attempts by its magnificence to glorify the 
dead is meaningless. We can add no honor to what 
our soldiers earned for themselves ; but rather we 
would share theirs by acknowledging to ourselves and 
to our descendants by this record of their lives, that 
they were of us, of our hearts, and of our homes. 

But, if I understand aright the chief use, the mean- 
ing, of this structure, it is the lesson of patriotism it 
teaches for all time : that when the hour of national 
trouble comes again, of danger to the union of these 
States, when the constitution, of which this day is the 
anniversary of its receiving the signatures of those hon- 
ored men who framed it, is misinterpreted or trampled 
upon, that, in that day, which may God avert, as the 
people gather together for counsel of themselves and of 
the former time, and as they ask how was it with our 
Fathers, turning to this memorial tablet they may learn, 
that in the great civil war men gave their lives a willing 
sacrifice for the life of their beloved country. And who 
shall say that in our own time, that to-day we do not 
need its lessons 1 Are we so faithfully carrying out those 
grand principles of justice and humanity they died to 
maintain, that we need no reminding of our duty ? Or 
shall we rather this day, assembled to ofi'er a tribute to 
patriotism, feeling the presence of a threatening cloud 
in our political horizon, renew our pledges and 
strengthen our vows to stand till death for the Republic ! 

Mr. Chairman of the Selectmen, to you, as the repre- 



31 

sentative of the authorities of the town of Dorchester, 
with this evidence of title which I put into your hands, 
I deliver this monument to your care and protection. 

To the Committee, sir, the charge of its erection has 
been a sacred duty. May the keeping of it ever be held 
a sacred trust. 

Believing that the town would before long inclose 
these grounds as a public square, there has been no 
fence placed around the monument, and we beg you, 
sir, and your associates, and we appeal to you, fellow- 
citizens, to do all in your power to hasten so desirable 
an event. 

May this monument be a holy presence in our midst, 
inspiring in each one of us the feeling, " I must do 
something for my country." And may it declare to the 
generations that may gather around it that Justice is 
eternal and must prevail. 



REMARKS OF JAMES H. UPHAM, ESQ. 

Chairman of the Selectmen. 



Mr. Chairman of the Committee : 

The town of Dorchester accepts the trust. 

Be assured, sh', she, the mother of free public 
schools, Avhose patriotism and liberality have been so 
tried in the early wars with the Indians, with the 
French in the colonial days, in the war of the Revolu- 
tion, in the Shay's rebellion, in the last war with Eng- 
land, and in the dreadful war so lately gloriously closed, 
and who has been found always true and trustworthy, 
will sacredly preserve this beautiful tribute of her 
citizens to the memory of sons who, in obedience to 
early instructions, and inherited purpose in morality, 
patriotism and humanity, have laid their lives on the 
altar of their country. I have no doubt your sugges- 
tions relative to these grounds will be duly attended to, 
and that, at no distant day, they will be graded, inclosed 
and ornamented, to be kept as a public park or 
common. 

Future generations will bless the memory of those 
we this day unite in honoring by these services. 



LETTER FROM GOVERNOR BULLOCK 



Commonwealth of Massachusk its, 
Executive Department. 

Boston, Sept. L3th, 1867. 

Gentlemen : I pray you will accept my thanks for 
your great kindness in inviting me to take some part 
with the people of Dorchester in dedicating their 
soldiers' monument. 

But as the day appointed for this public ceremony is 
the seventeenth instant, when I am under an unavoida- 
ble engagement to be absent from the State, it will be 
my great loss to be compelled to forego the acceptance 
of your invitation. 

This necessity I most deeply regret. The ancient, 
continued and unbroken current of patriotic sacrifice 
for the American Union which Dorchester has presented 
in every one of our wars for nationality, from the Revo- 
lution until now, will lend to the present commemora- 
tion an interest which is historically sublime. Let the 
present be a fit sequence of the past. 

Let the sons of Dorchester who fell in the grand war 
of the rebellion be counted and be perpetuated as 
worthy successors of those who fell in the drama of the 
first Revolution. And let your noble town count it for 



35 

her highest honor to have the opportunity to consecrate 
the present monument to the patriotic virtues of the 
present generation which have given guarantee and 
security to the blood shed by the tirst generation of the 
citizens of Dorchester, loving liberty and willing to die 
for the assurance of it. 

ALEX. H. BULLOCK. 



LETTER FliOM 

EX-GOVERNOR JOHN A. ANDREW. 



Boston, September 16th, 1867. 

Messrs. Erancis P. Denisy, 

J. H. Pierce, and others, Committee, etc., etc. 

Gentlemen : I cordially thank you for the invitation 
with which you have favored me, to attend the dedica- 
tion of the Soldiers' Monument, in Dorchester, to-mor- 
row ; but I am compelled to add, that I must start 
tomorrow morning for Worcester, and remain in atten- 
dance on a judicial trial, from which there is no relief 
nor delay permitted. Were it possible for me, I would 
certainly bear testimony by my presence to the interest 
which such an occasion will never fail to inspire in my 
heart while it remains capable of any emotion. 

I am, faithfully yours, 

JOHN A. ANDREW. 



NAMES INSCRLBED ON THE EAST TABLET. 



H. W. HALL. 
T. B. FOX, Jr. 
W. R. PORTER. 

F. E. BARNARD. 
WALTER HUMPHREYS. 

G. F. BOYNTON. 
J. H. STIMPSON. 
A. W. CLAPP. 
H. D. BURR. 
OTIS SUMNER. 
E. B. TILESTON. 
GEORGE HOLMES. 



R. T. HOLMES. 
J. H. BRADSHAW. 
G. H. CLARK. 
W. E. BLAKE. 
B. F. BARTLETT. 
JAS. CAMPBELL. 
T. S. BOYNTON. 

R. WESSELHOEFT. 

G. W. McELROY. 

W. F. POPE. 

E. F. ADAMS. 

H. A. EVANS. 



NAMES INSCRIBED ON THE NORTH TABLET. 



BENJAMIN STONE, Jr. 
E. C. FOSTER. 
C. A. BROWNE. 
O. J. DODGE. 
H. C. FOSTER. 
PATRICK COLLINS. 
J. McGOVERIN. 
A. C. STONE. 
J. E. ROBIE. 
ISAAC WILLIAMS. 
DAVID BROWN. 
JOHN MARTER. 



G. E. TOLMAN. 
CHARLES POOL. 
G. R. BAXTER. 
S. H. COX. 
CUNNISON DEANS. 
C. W. RICHARDSON. 

E. Q. RICHARDS. 
R. T. McGUKIN. 

F. H. SUMNER. 
M. W. STONE. 
J. E. BIRD. 
ALEXANDER MUSGRAVE. 



NAMES INSCRIBED ON THE SOUTH TABLET. 



M. H. WARREN. 

J. T. BLACK. 

RUFUS CIIOATE. 

M. M. SIIEPARD. 

S. S. CIIADWICK. 

JOHN B. PHELPS. 

J. W. TEMPLEMAN. 

C. H. MARSH. 

I. A. HOWE. 

DALLAS SOUTHWORTH. 

H. A. FULLER. 

W. W. RICHARDS. 



G. C. MILLET. 
AUGUSTUS DEUTLING. 
J. O. HILL. 
S. W. YOUNG. 
JAMES DRISCOLL. 
G. L. FRENCH. 
J. E. HARRIS. 
JOHN DOODY. 
G. E. LAMBERT. 
S. B. HARRIS. 
G. H. FRENCH. 
HENRY MORROW. 



NAMES INSCRIBED ON THE WEST TABLET. 



W. G. HEWINS. 

B. R. PIERCE. 
FRANK CARR. 
ANDREW FAIS. 
A. J. McIN TIRE. 
ANDREW WILSON. 
W. B. GAS KINS. 

C. F. DALE. 
JAS. TEELAN. 

J. H. BLACKMAN. 
HARRISON GLOVER. 
LEMUEL TILESTON. 
FREDERIC VEIT. 



SYLVESTER W^HEELER. 
M. O. CONNOR. 
J. C. CLAPP. 
T. S. DENNETT. 
JEREMIAH HENDLEY. 
C. E. TOLMAN. 
G. 0. BAXTER. 
WILLIAM. QUIGLEY. 
C. E. HART. 
FRITZ GOETH. 
J. W. STERLING. 
GEO. B. YOUNG. 



CAUSES OF DEATH. 



Killed in battle .26 

Died of disease ......... 29 

Died of wounds ......... 20 

Inhuman treatment in rebel prisons . . . . .11 

Accidental 2 

Unknown .......... 9 

97 



Born in Dorchester .... 

" (out of Dorchester) in Massachusetts 

" in Ireland 

" " Provinces 

" " Maine . 

'• " Germany 

" " England 

" " Scotland 

" " Prussia 

" " Illinois 

" " New Hampshire 

" " Unknown . 



39 
20 
8 
7 
8 
4 
1 
2 
1 
2 
2 
3 



97 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 077 419 4 



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